The Seawolf class attack submarine (SSN) was the intended successor to the Los Angeles class, ordered at the end of the Cold War in 1989. At one time, an intended fleet of 29 submarines was to be built over a ten-year period, later reduced to twelve. The end of the Cold War and budget constraints led to the fleet being cancelled at three boats in 1995, and led to the design of the smaller Virginia class.

They are quieter than the previous Los Angeles class submarines, larger, faster, have twice as many torpedo tubes for a total of 8, and carry more weapons, but were also much more expensive. They were intended to combat the then-threat of large numbers of advanced Soviet ballistic-missile submarines in deep ocean, such as the Typhoon class, and to reply to the new Soviet Akula class attack submarines. However they also have extensive equipment for shallow-water operations, including a floodable silo capable of deploying eight combat swimmers and their equipment at once. The boats can also carry up to 50 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles for attacking land and shipping targets.

The class uses the more advanced AN/BSY-2 combat system, which includes a new larger spherical sonar array, a wide aperture array (WAA), and a new towed-array sonar. Each boat is powered by a single S6W nuclear reactor, delivering 52,000 hp (39 MW) to a low-noise pumpjet propulsor.

Jimmy Carter is roughly 100 feet (30 m) longer than the other two ships of her class due to the insertion of a section known as the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), which allows launch and recovery of ROVs and Navy SEAL forces. The MMP may also be used as an underwater splicing chamber for tapping of undersea fiber optic cables. This role was formerly filled by the decommissioned USS Parche.

Historical Account: "End of the Line" - USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), the third and last Seawolf-class submarine, is the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for former President Jimmy Carter, who served in the United States Navy as a Communications Officer, Sonar Officer, Electronics Officer, Weapons Officer, and Supply Officer while on board the USS Pomfret (SS-391). Jimmy Carter is one of the few ships of the United States Navy to have been named for a person who was alive at the time of the ship's naming, and the first submarine to be named for a living former president; Jimmy Carter is the only U.S. President to qualify in submarines.